


Kindred 4: The Nerd

by torturingtaylor (itzaimster)



Series: Kindred Series [4]
Category: Hanson
Genre: Brothers, Clones, Conspiracy, Gen, Genetics, Hostage Situations, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-20 04:45:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8236544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itzaimster/pseuds/torturingtaylor
Summary: Alex, Mark and Carey are taken hostage in an effort to draw both Taylor and Jesse out of hiding.





	1. Part One

“Hey don’t go too far, okay?!” Taylor called after his two younger sons.  
“We won’t!” River called back as they ran down the beach.  
Taylor sighed and sat back into the beach chair, looking up as Natalie appeared beside him.  
“Where are they going?” she asked.  
“Those other kids are down there, I think they’re having a game of beach volleyball or something,” Taylor shook his head, “I’m not entirely sure.”  
“I’m glad you’re not too worried,” Natalie smiled as she sat beside him, “it was getting a little rough there for a while.”  
“I know, I’m sorry,” his brow furrowed as he took the drink she handed him, “I just wanted to make sure we were actually safe.”  
“I know,” she assured, “you don’t have to apologise for anything. I get it.”  
“Did you talk to Kate?” he asked, moving his sunglasses onto his head.  
“I did. They’re not too worried at the moment but the kids are getting restless,” Natalie admitted, “I’m not sure they like Texas as much as Zac and Kate hoped.”  
“It was always a gamble,” Taylor shrugged, “I think we were just lucky in that respect.”  
“I bet Ike’s are having fun though,” Natalie mused.  
“They were, last I heard,” Taylor agreed with a smile, “it’s like a never ending holiday for them. They’re going to hate it when school starts again.”  
“As are ours, and about that…” Natalie grit her teeth, “what are we going to do about that, considering we don’t know how long this ‘vacation’ is going to last?”  
“We’ll have to inch them back into it I guess,” Taylor shrugged, “it’s gotta happen sometime.”  
“But here?” Natalie’s brow rose, “or back in the States?”  
“I’m not going to make any definitive plans about returning to the States,” Taylor insisted, “I know it’s been six months but we don’t know that they aren’t just waiting to pounce, so to speak.”  
“But are we going to live like this forever?” Natalie pressed, “or are we going to face this?”  
“Face it how?” Taylor frowned, “if I ever see or hear from them again, it’s over. It means I’ve been taken in. I don’t have a choice but to essentially live on the run. It sucks, but that was always how it was going to be.”  
“And the kids?” Natalie didn’t give up, “what about them?”  
Taylor cast his eyes to where Penny was helping Willa build a sandcastle. They were having trouble keeping a particular part of it upright no matter how wet they made the sand.  
“I know they didn’t ask for this, and they certainly don’t deserve any of it,” he began cautiously, “but this could potentially be our lives now. I’m almost tempted to suggest we move to somewhere in Europe and send them to school there. At least they’d be getting some of the best education in the world.”  
“But we’re not going back to Tulsa, are we?”  
Taylor gave her a glance, the look in her eye making him divert his gaze straight away.  
“Not for a long time,” he admitted sullenly.  
They sat in silence for a moment, just watching the girls.  
“I might draw up an activity with them for tomorrow,” Natalie began gently, “I’ll tentatively see if there’s any particular European countries they want to explore more than others. Maybe that will help our aim.”  
“Sounds great,” he rubbed at his face with his free hand, worry showing in his voice.  
“It’s okay,” she insisted, leaning over to rub his shoulder, “we’ll figure it out. It’s just taking a little longer than I expected it to.”  
“Yeah,” he agreed non-committedly, “me too.”

Long after they’d put the kids to bed, Taylor emerged from the bathroom to find Natalie on the bed watching television.  
“Your phone was ringing,” she kept her voice down, not bothering to look in his direction as he walked past to fetch it.  
“Ike was gonna call,” he realised aloud as he fetched it.  
“I just missed it,” she admitted, “it’s a bit late, isn’t it?”  
“I’m not sure what time zone he’s in anymore,” Taylor admitted, frowning when he looked up his missed calls.  
But just as he was about to say something, the phone began to vibrate.  
“Take it outside,” Natalie insisted, hearing it.  
Taylor decided against telling her who was actually calling, quickly heading out to the balcony before answering. He slid the door closed before putting the phone to his ear.  
“You really shouldn’t be calling me here,” was the first thing he said.  
“I know, I’m sorry,” he could hear a strain in Alex’s voice, “I just… needed to check in. See how everything was going.”  
“It’s going fine,” Taylor insisted, “but I can’t really talk right now.”  
There was a pause and Taylor thought he heard Alex whispering to himself.  
“Alex?”  
“Yeah. Uh… have you heard from Jesse?”  
“Jesse?” he frowned, “why?”  
“Nothing we just haven’t heard from him in a few months is all, and his phones aren’t working,” Alex was quick to say, “I was wondering if you might know where he is?”  
“Alex even if I did I shouldn’t be telling you,” Taylor’s frown only deepened, “what’s going on? I can hear that something’s wrong, so just tell me.”  
“Nothing’s wrong I swear,” Alex’s voice broke.  
“Don’t lie to me! Why are you of all people calling me all of a sudden? We agreed to radio silence!”  
There was another moment of tense silence, before Taylor could have sworn he heard a light sob.  
“Taylor they’ve got my Mom,” Alex’s voice shook.  
He felt his blood run cold as he stared out at the ocean.  
“What?” he barely got out.  
“And Mark, and… and I think they got Carey too.”  
There was a clatter on the line and Taylor thought he heard a yelp in the background.  
“Jordan Hanson?” a deeper voice came down the line all of a sudden.  
“Who is this?” Taylor demanded, “and what do you want?”  
“It’s pretty simple. We want your location and the location of C-5. In return we won’t kill either of these two, or the one in Hawaii.”  
“Why would Morris let you kill _any_ of us?!” Taylor asked incredulously, “we’re all a part of the same program!”  
“Desperate needs, and it appears some of you are more important than others.”  
Taylor’s hand went to his head where he took hold of his hair. He looked back toward the room hoping Natalie couldn’t make out his side of the conversation.  
“What does he want? Does he just want me?” he tried to clarify, “and Jesse?”  
“Jesse Musgrove? As far as I’m aware.”  
“That’s it?” Taylor’s brow went up, “nothing else?”  
“What else are you implying?”  
“Nothing,” Taylor answered quickly, “I just want to know what his game is before I start playing.”  
“The deal is, once we have you in Dallas we let these two go,” the voice was smug, “we’ll keep C-2 until we get confirmation on C-5’s location.”  
“I can’t help with Jesse I don’t know where he is,” Taylor said straight off.  
“That’s unfortunate.”  
“He obviously disappeared better than I could,” he added, hoping it was an incentive for them to let Carey go.  
“Where are you?” the voice demanded.  
Taylor paused, his mind racing. If he told them where he was he might as well just hand his kids over on a platter. But if he offered himself up freely, maybe they’d leave them alone. He was the one who’d escaped them after all. They wanted their experiment back.  
He didn’t know either Isaac or his mother’s location. He wouldn’t be able to give them up if he were interrogated again. If Natalie had plenty of warning, she could move the kids and he wouldn’t know where they were either…  
“Where are you?” the voice repeated, a little more growl this time.  
“I’m not gonna say,” Taylor insisted, “your end of the bargain is that you leave my family out of this.”  
“We don’t want your family.”  
Taylor smirked at that knowing they probably just hadn’t been given the right orders yet.  
“You said Dallas?”  
“I did.”  
“I won’t tell you where I am now but I can be at Dallas-Fort Worth airport tomorrow afternoon,” he tried to reason, “but I’ll be alone.”  
“That takes care of one thing,” his voice moved away from the mic for a moment, “call back with an exact time. Meanwhile, we’ll keep these other ones company until you get here.”  
“Put Alex back on,” Taylor demanded.  
“Sure.”  
Taylor heard a small commotion, and Alex’s voice saying something indecipherable before he made it back to the line.  
“Taylor?”  
“Don’t panic, I’m coming,” he insisted.  
“What about the kids?!”  
“Don’t worry about the kids, they won’t find them. I’m coming alone. Your Mom’s gonna be fine.”  
“I don’t trust them,” Alex’s voice lowered, though it was obvious they were still within hearing range, “what if they take you in and take us out anyway?”  
“You have a better chance if I do this,” Taylor insisted, “instead of us just giving up. But I’m gonna need you to up your game once I’ve gone in, okay? I need you on full protection detail.”  
“I will if I can,” Alex promised, his voice still shaky.  
“Just hang in there a little while longer. Where’s Mark?”  
“He’s here. They’ve got him… uh. It’s not good,” Alex faltered, “please just hurry.”  
“I’ll look at flights as soon as I get off the phone. Are you two okay otherwise?”  
“No,” Alex scorned, “I’m fucking terrified and Mark’s tied down! We don’t know what’s happened to Carey, they won’t tell us anything!”  
“Okay just… take a breath,” Taylor insisted, already doing it himself, “this won’t last forever, okay? I’ll get there as soon as I can.”  
“To Dallas,” Alex corrected.  
“Yes, Dallas,” Taylor had forgotten he didn’t actually know where Alex was, “I’ll be there.”  
He heard someone in the background telling Alex to hang up.  
“Just stay calm!” he insisted before he could.  
“Good luck, Taylor.”  
The call cut out and Taylor squeezed the phone with his hand. He looked out over the ocean again as he started to feel sick. His mind was still running wild trying to think of a way out.  
But he couldn’t think of a way out.  
He leant over the balcony and took another deep breath, his mind now taunting him with images of what they might have been doing to Mark and Alex.  
Deep down, he’d known this was a possibility. It was even why they’d encouraged Zac and Jess to both leave Tulsa – they were afraid they might be used against them somehow. But despite each of the clones’ reservations about the scientists… using _them_ against Taylor hadn’t even come up as a possibility. He knew looking back that it was reckless to think they’d be overlooked, but it was far too late now. The damage had well and truly been done.  
He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the sliding door open behind him.  
“What’s wrong?” was Natalie’s first question as she appeared, looking worried.  
“Where do I start?” Taylor chuckled incredulously before rubbing at his eyes.  
She came to his side and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.  
“I have to go,” he came straight out with, “they’ve got Alex’s Mom, and they’ve got Mark and Carey. They’re threatening to kill them.”  
“Do you believe them?” Natalie frowned.  
Taylor nodded, before wiping at his eyes again.  
“Yeah I do,” he admitted aloud, “these people aren’t known for idle threats. I should know.”  
“Do you want me to call Jesse?”  
Taylor hesitated at that but nodded.  
“I have to be in Dallas tomorrow,” he shot a glance in her direction but didn’t catch her eye, “I don’t know where he is but they’re after him too. For what he did in Nevada.”  
“You can hardly blame them for that one,” Natalie attempted a joke, ill-timed as it was, “what will you tell the kids?”  
Taylor took another deep breath, not having thought that far yet.  
“I don’t know, maybe nothing,” he admitted, “I’ll call Ike in the morning and let him know. I don’t know how long this is going to take.”  
He bit into his lip as he struggled with the next part.  
“Or if I’ll even come back this time.”


	2. Part Two

*3 Days Earlier*

“So how does it feel?” Mark couldn’t hide his smirk, “being _Mrs Miller_.”  
“Great because I’m not married to you,” Emma hit back as they swayed, “but thank you for coming.”  
“Wouldn’t have missed it.”  
“And I did get to see you in a tux,” she appreciated, “you don’t scrub up too bad at all.”  
Mark rolled his eyes and looked away.  
“It’s a shame about the tattoo.”  
“What tattoo?” he raised a brow.  
“You got a new tattoo,” she tapped him on the shoulder where her hand rested.  
“I did not,” he scoffed.  
“You did so, I can see the bandage through the back of your shirt!” Emma insisted, “so what is it this time? Did you finally get that butterfly?”  
“I am not getting a butterfly, you can ask as many times as you want, I am not getting a butterfly,” Mark scorned.  
“So what is it?” she grinned, “I’m going to see it eventually you know.”  
Mark sighed and looked away again as if he were a little embarrassed.  
“It’s script, it says ‘for the fallen’,” he admitted.  
Her face immediately fell, “it’s not for Colin, is it?”  
“No,” he scoffed, “I mean sort of. We’re not all going to be here forever, you know?”  
“Not to kill the mood or anything, right?”  
“You asked,” he smirked.  
He looked over his shoulder when he felt a tap, seeing Carey with his eye on his new bride.  
“Can I cut in?” he asked with a grin.  
“Nope,” Mark stepped to the side, blocking him, “you walked away, she’s mine now. She’s even got my name.”  
“Please save me,” Emma faked a whimper.  
“Hey you saw that Rachel’s here, right?” Carey hit his brother on the arm again making him pause.  
“What about her?” Mark frowned.  
“Ooh, you didn’t tell him?” Emma’s eyes shone.  
“Tell me what?”  
“She’s drunk and she wants to get laid,” Emma spat out, “and by laid I mean by you.”  
“Really?” his brow furrowed.  
“Oh yeah. Been talking about it all night.”  
“Are you going to let her go or…?”  
“Emma,” Mark looked her in the eye, “I’m sorry, but I want a divorce.”  
“You’re dumping me for Rachel? How dare you!”  
Carey rolled his eyes.  
“You can’t stand in the way of true love,” Mark grinned before pulling her into a hug, “have a great night.”  
“Thank you,” she mused before he let her go and disappeared into the dancefloor crowd.  
“You’re the best sister I ever had!”  
“I’m the only sis- never mind,” she shrugged as Carey took her into his arms instead.  
“Are you done?” he had to check.  
“I’m done,” she assured, “so how was your day?”  
“It wasn’t so bad,” Carey considered, “I don’t know why people think weddings are so stressful.”  
“It probably helped that we only brought ten people along,” Emma pointed out, “I just wish I wasn’t showing so much. I feel fat.”  
“You are not fat,” Carey insisted, “and having the both of you here made the day perfect for me.”  
“Thank you for flying to Hawaii,” she couldn’t help but tease, “I know it was hard for you.”  
“It was no bother, but I’m in no rush to go back to LA,” he insisted.  
“Neither am I,” she grinned, leaning up to kiss him.  
He kissed her back, not reacting when she reached up to pull the tie out of his neat ponytail. When they pulled back his hair framed her face.  
“So how long do you want the honeymoon to last?” he asked her.  
“Forever,” was her response, “but we should probably go home and set up the nursery before baby gets here.”  
“True,” his gaze fell to her bump, “and we still need to move the last of our stuff into the new place.”  
“Let’s not think about that right now,” Emma insisted, returning her hands to his shoulders as they swayed, “now that Mark’s out of our hair, tonight is all ours.”  
“I just need to check on Dad before we disappear,” Carey warned.  
“I thought he went back to his room already?”  
Carey took a look over his shoulder to the table where he’d last seen his father.  
“He must have,” he realised, “I’ll check on him on the way up to the room then.”  
“Speaking of…” Emma tapped his shoulder, “if it gets much later I don’t think I’m going to last the night. Maybe we should…?”  
Carey looked across to the bar where Mark had accosted Rachel along with Emma’s other two bridesmaids. He looked like he was settling in for the long haul.  
“Sure,” he stepped back and offered his hand.  
She stopped to remove her silver heels, glanced over at the bar, then took his hand and followed him back into the lobby of the hotel where they made their way up to the honeymoon suite. 

*2 Days Earlier*

Carey stumbled toward the door late the following morning, his eyes barely open. He checked through the peep hole before pulling the chain away and opening the door.  
“What?” he grumbled.  
“Long night huh?” Mark mused, leaning in the doorway with his shirt unbuttoned.  
Carey’s eyes narrowed further as he looked him up and down.  
“You too I take it,” he said when he realised his brother was wearing yesterday’s clothes.  
“Worth it,” Mark shrugged, “anyway I’m about to go and get Dad ready to take to the airport, figured you’d want to say goodbye.”  
“Yeah I will,” Carey agreed, “how long?”  
“You’ve got an hour.”  
Carey nodded.  
“Give me twenty, I’ll take a shower and head down.”  
Mark turned to walk away without another word.  
“Hey!” Carey called after him, making him pause, “tell me you treated those girls right last night.”  
“Why don’t you ask them?” Mark smirked before disappearing around a corner.  
Carey nodded to himself as he closed the door.  
He got himself ready and made sure Emma was still sleeping before heading two floors down to the room his father was staying in. He had another half hour before Mark turned up ready to go.  
Carey spent the rest of the day with Emma in their room until Mark returned on the hotel transfer that night and he met him down at the bar.  
“So what are your plans?” Carey set his glass on the bar after a first drink, “are you still leaving tomorrow?”  
“Yeah tomorrow morning,” Mark confirmed, “I thought I might go and check on Dad and then head back to Chicago the day after.”  
“You know you can’t stay in Chicago forever, right?” Carey eyed him, “the fees alone on that place… you won’t have the money to keep it.”  
“I know,” Mark’s knee bounced as he avoided eye contact, “I’m still figuring things out. Maybe I’ll sell it.”  
“Think you’ll get away with it?”  
“Everyone there still thinks I’m Colin,” he shrugged, “I don’t see why not. I got plenty of his photo ID I can use.”  
“Just be careful with that,” Carey insisted, “you don’t know who he’s already pissed off.”  
“I’ve heard from a few of them already,” Mark assured, “nothing I can’t handle so far.”  
“Not to mention our friendly local scientists,” Carey teased.  
“Yeah… I’d be more worried about those,” Mark admitted, “I think if I leave Chicago I’ll see about getting the tracker out professionally.”  
“Like a doctor?” Carey’s brow rose, “what are you gonna say when they ask you what it is?”  
“I’ve got time to come up with something,” Mark shrugged.  
There was a pause between them where Carey had another drink and Mark ordered something else. When Carey had his attention again he sighed.  
“It’s weird having you so far away,” he admitted.  
“Don’t get emo on me,” Mark scoffed, leaning both arms forward onto the bar.  
“It might be the alcohol,” Carey appreciated, “but it’s still weird. Like we’ve never been more than a few streets away, ever.”  
“Except for all those times I ditched school or ran away,” Mark mused.  
“And I’d panic every time.”  
Mark shot him an awkward glance before being distracted by his drink arriving.  
“That’s why you want me back in LA?” he guessed.  
Carey shrugged, turning his body so he was mirroring his brother’s stance.  
“You know there’s nothing stopping you from moving to Chicago,” Mark pointed out.  
“Emma,” Carey spat out faster than he intended, “or not actually _Emma_ but… her whole life’s in LA. I can’t ask her to give that up.”  
“She’s your woman, she’s kinda supposed to,” Mark shrugged.  
“Maybe some think so,” Carey considered, “but no, not me. You take away her friends, her job-“  
“She still works?”  
“-and she’d be miserable, I know it. Yes she still works, I couldn’t get her to give it up.”  
“Crazy,” Mark shook his head.  
“She knows the money won’t last forever, so she’s just… looking out for our long term interests I guess. She might not go back after the baby’s born. We’ll see.”  
“Are you telling her not to?”  
“I want her to take care of herself,” Carey reasoned, “I don’t want her to worry about work if the baby becomes too much.”  
“You two are going to be the worst helicopter parents,” Mark chuckled to himself, “both of you bringing it up 24/7, it won’t get any independence.”  
“We’ll see about that,” Carey finished off his drink, indicating to the barman that he was done.  
“We will,” Mark agreed, “you decided on names yet?”  
“If she has she hasn’t told me,” Carey shrugged, standing from his seat.  
“You don’t have some names that you want to use?” Mark raised a brow.  
“No, not really,” Carey admitted, “but it’s not important to me. I just want a healthy baby, no matter what or who they turn out to be.”  
“Get out of my sight,” Mark scoffed, “I forgot you were an emo drunk.”  
Carey shrugged again.  
“I’m a married man now,” he smiled, “she’s my better half.”  
“She has been since high school. Now get out of my sight before I throw my drink at you, I'm sure this one's expensive,” Mark’s eyes narrowed.  
Carey laughed to himself before turning to leave.

*The Day Before*

“Alexander can you take the trash out please?! I won’t ask you again!”  
“Mom!” he groaned, falling back into his chair.  
“If you miss it again I swear to God-“  
“Okay! Okay.”  
He pulled himself to his feet, dropping the PS3 controller onto one of his unused keyboards. He took hold of the metal railing as he took the stairs two at a time, cringing at the daylight as he emerged into the house.  
He made his way through the boxes in the hallway toward the kitchen and aimed for the bin at the end of the counter. After taking a quick look around in case there was anything else to take he headed for the back wire door and jumped down to the rocky path. He stepped over to the driveway already feeling the pollen getting to him, and leant over the wire fence to take the lid off the trash can and throw the bag in.  
A noise from the front of the house made him look up toward the street.  
At first he began to think he’d imagined it, but then it sounded like the front door of the house had slammed shut. At the sound of his mother’s cries he dropped the can lid and bolted.  
“MOM?!” he yelled, pulling the door open and rushing inside.  
It didn’t take long to find her in the living room, a man in black having a tight hold of her arm and another standing to the side with a gun. Both wore balaclavas.  
“Nice of you to join us, Mr Bell,” the gunman turned to face him, “…a word?”


	3. Part Three

“Please let her go,” Alex’s voice shook as the gunman stepped toward him.  
“Maybe later,” he insisted, “first you and I need to have a little talk.”  
He grabbed Alex by the hair and pulled him back down the hall.  
“ALEX!” he heard his mother cry as the gunman led him to the basement, pushing him through the door and making him trip down the first few steps.  
“What do you want?!” he cried, realising the man was coming down after him and rushing himself down the stairs to get away.  
The man followed silently, waiting until Alex was quite obviously cornered against his desk. Then he took hold of his chair and set it aside.  
“Take a seat,” he ordered.  
Alex looked down at the chair, looked back at his computers, then awkwardly took a seat. The man removed his balaclava. Alex instantly recognised him as one of the men who’d originally abducted him and taken him to Nevada.  
“What do you want?” his voice rose in pitch, well and truly intimidated already.  
“Information. We need the locations of C-1 and C-5. You would know them as Jordan Hanson and Jesse Musgrove. The two J’s…”  
“How would I know that?” Alex frowned, “I haven’t talked to either of them in months!”  
The man gave him a condescending look before looking toward his computer screens.   
“Is that so?”  
“I swear,” Alex shook his head, “I’m not lying.”  
“But you have been in contact with them,” the man insisted, “where’s your cell phone?”  
“I don’t have one,” Alex glanced toward the computers.  
“A geek like you who doesn’t have a cell phone?”  
“I never go anywhere, I don’t need one!” Alex’s brow furrowed, “and I’m not a geek, I’m a nerd.”  
The man gave him an odd look at that and Alex lowered his eyes.  
“Maybe Mark or Carey know where they are,” he tried to divert him, “they’re all kind of… friends.”  
“And you’re not?” the man didn’t believe him.  
“Not so much,” Alex shook his head, “I just help.”  
“Well you’re going to help me now,” he insisted, stepping back a little, “and you’re going to use your little computer here to make a phone call.”  
“I don’t have Jesse or Taylor – Jordan’s numbers,” Alex quickly corrected himself, “they both changed them.”  
“Then you’re going to call someone else. Someone who I know for a fact is currently in the Honolulu International Airport waiting for a flight back to LAX.”  
Alex took a moment to work out that he was talking about Hawaii.  
“Who?” he frowned.  
“We know him as Six,” the man smirked, “you know him as Mark Miller.”

Mark was just walking away from the metal detectors when his phone rang. Struggling at first to get it out of his shoulder bag, he paused when he saw the caller ID.  
“Hey Al, long time no talk,” he answered.  
“Yeah, yeah it is,” Alex’s voice came through, “you got a minute?”  
“I have many of them,” Mark replied before he continued walking, “what’s up?”  
“Um, I noticed you were on your way home…”  
“I am,” he confirmed, “though I’m not entirely sure of _how_ you’d know that…”  
“I was wondering if you wanted to come here instead.”  
“Here… where here? The bat cave? Am I getting a formal invite to the bat cave?”  
“…Yeah, I guess.”  
“What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing,” Alex quickly brushed over, “I just… need your help with something that’s all.”  
“You need _my_ help?” Mark raised a brow disbelievingly.  
“Yes.”  
“Why mine?”  
“Because… you’re the only one that isn’t either getting married or in hiding.”  
Mark nodded to himself, realising that was true.  
“And I might be able to identify the guys that took you,” Alex added after a pause.  
“In that case I’m on my way,” Mark assured, “but if you want me there, you’re going to have to tell me where it is.”  
“Miami,” Alex’s voice turned quiet, “I can have someone pick you up from the airport.”  
“Fancy,” Mark appreciated, “but I just checked in to my LA flight so I’ll have to organise the next one on the ground there.”  
“I’ll call you back,” Alex promised.  
“Guess I’ll see you in the morning.”

Alex gulped as he ended the call, but stayed leaning over the keyboard.  
“Now what?” he asked without looking over his shoulder.  
“Take a seat.”  
Alex shot him a glance, still seeing the gun in plain view, before heading back to the chair. He hugged himself as he sat down trying to keep his eyes away from it.  
“So we’re just gonna wait until he gets here?” his brow furrowed.  
“Unless you have a better idea,” the gunman hinted, “if you could just locate the other two for us, we wouldn’t have to go through all of this.”  
Alex just shook his head.   
“Then we wait.”  
“What about my Mom? Can’t you let her go?”  
“I think we’ll hold onto her for just a little while,” his voice dripped with intent, “just to keep things in check. Do you have some form of notification set up for if one of them calls you?”  
“Why?” Alex was worried.  
“I hardly think you’ll want to spend the whole night down here while we take care of your Mom upstairs.”  
Alex looked up toward the door. He didn’t want to leave the console, but he didn’t want to leave his Mom alone either.  
“I can set one up,” he suggested.  
“Go ahead.”  
Alex pulled himself over to the keyboards again and got to work, under the watchful eye of the gunman. He soon had a redirection set up to the house phone, and the gunman then pulled him back upstairs by the shirt.  
He found his mother on the couch and quickly sat down with her and pulled her into a hug.  
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he insisted, obviously shaking himself, “someone’s coming that’s gonna help, I promise.”

As Mark stepped off the plane in the early hours of the morning, he debated for a moment whether to call Carey and tell his brother what he was doing. Doing the quick math in his head and working out that it would be between 9-10pm in Hawaii and remembering that they were on their honeymoon, he decided against it.  
He was just slipping his phone back into his jean pocket when he spotted the transfer and headed towards the older gentlemen. Alex had certainly spared no expense, but no one had ever asked what he’d done with his money from Colin.  
The drive out to Coral Springs didn’t take as long as it could have at any other time of the day. Mark was tempted to sleep on the drive, but he’d never been to Miami and had opted to keep an eye out the window instead for anything interesting. He ended up not being able to see much in the dark.  
When they pulled up in the driveway of Alex’s house, Mark raised a brow. There were obvious lights on inside and even some movement, but he’d expected… less of a dump. The front yard was overgrown with weeds, there was trash on the sidewalk, and he was pretty sure there was a raccoon in the middle of attacking a neighbor’s dog.  
“This is definitely the place?” he had to ask the driver.  
“Definitely the place,” the much older man confirmed, “want me to wait?”  
“No, no it’s fine,” Mark frowned, tipping him before opening the door.  
He made his way up to the flimsy wire gate – which had been left open – as the car began to pull away, and it was only now that he paused.  
Something didn’t feel right.  
Suddenly wishing he’d brought any form of weapon but knowing that if anything was wrong Alex would soon fill him in, he made his way up to the door and (taking into account the time) knocked softly. He saw a shadow move against one of the curtains before hearing footsteps along creaking floorboards as they came to the door. For a moment he tried to remember if Alex lived alone before being glad when it was he who answered.  
“Hey,” he greeted, brow raised, “glad you’re awake.”  
“Come in,” Alex insisted as he stepped aside, looking slightly on edge.  
“Okay…” Mark gave him an odd look.  
Alex avoided eye contact as he closed the door behind him.  
“So what’s your plan?” Mark asked, fidgeting with his bag, “why couldn’t this be done over the phone?”  
Alex walked past him as if to head into the living area. Mark had to skirt boxes to follow him, and when he made it to the doorway he froze.  
There was a man in a balaclava with a gun pointed toward an older woman on the couch.  
“What the…?”  
He heard the footstep behind him and turned in time to duck. Another one had come at him with a bat and had tried to hit him over the head.  
Mark dropped his bag and went for the man’s legs, sending them both to the ground with a heavy thud. He took a kick to the ribs before managing to elbow the man in the hip, sending his leg dead. Two seconds later he froze as he felt a dart hit him in the back.

“Please don’t hurt him!” Alex exclaimed as Mark collapsed, his hands going to his head in panic.  
The one who’d fired the dart walked over to retrieve it while the other struggled to push Mark’s body aside with a grunt.   
“If we do he fucking deserves it,” the one with the gun went to his bag to reload it.  
Alex only now realised it had been a tranquiliser gun and not an actual gun. He’d forgotten what it had looked like.  
“Oh my gosh!” a sudden exclamation came from his mother.  
“What?” Alex turned, worried.  
She’d stood from the couch and was looking down on Mark.  
“He looks just like you!” she had trouble getting out.  
“You haven’t told her?” the gunman smirked to himself.  
“Told me what? Alexander, what is going on here?!”  
“Help me get him down to the basement,” the injured man grumbled to his partner, as he managed to get to his feet and grab Mark by the shoulders.  
Alex kept his eye on them until they were out of sight, jumping when his mother took him by the arm once they were.  
“Alexander what have you gotten us into?!” she demanded, “did you go after your real family?! Is that boy your twin?!”  
“Mom, please,” he backed off a little, “it’s hard to explain.”  
“Then you’d better start explaining, Mister!”  
Alex jumped again when he heard a bang from the basement that sounded a lot like his chair hitting the console.  
“Alex?!”  
Trying not to hyperventilate, Alex took his mother back to the couch. He kept his eye on the doorway as some other odd sounds started coming from the basement.  
“I did go looking for my birth parents,” he admitted, unsure of how exactly to explain everything, “but I found a lot more than I expected to.”  
“You found him,” his mother pointed in the direction they’d disappeared, “who is he?!”  
“His name’s Mark, and he’s a twin,” Alex brushed over.  
“Your twin?!”  
“No, someone else’s twin.”  
“That Taylor Hanson boy? Did you contact them?”  
Alex winced at the mention of his name.  
“I didn’t,” wasn’t a lie, “but I met him a while ago now.”  
“You met him?” her brow rose, “he came here?”  
Alex shook his head.  
“It’s a long story,” he insisted, obviously not wanting to tell it, “Mark and his brother are from LA and they kind of spear-headed this research project based around Taylor obviously looking like them and once they went looking they kinda… found more. I found them.”  
“More what, exactly?”


	4. Part Four

Mark groaned as he came to, at first unable to see anything in the dark. He heard someone’s footsteps to his right but he wasn’t able to focus on them before he felt their fist connect with his jaw.  
“God that felt good,” he recognised a voice as he spat blood onto the floor.  
“Fuck you,” he muttered in rejoinder.  
“Welcome back Miller.”  
Mark licked at his split lip before looking up. He certainly recognised the man in front of him. He was one of the men he’d tried to run down in California when they were after Colin. A quick dart of his eyes and he realised he must have been in Alex’s control room.  
“Just got a few questions for you.”  
“And what makes you think I’ll answer them?” Mark’s voice was husky as he started to realise he was stuck.  
He was sitting in a large swivel chair with his wrists zip tied to the back somewhere.  
“A few things…” the man leant back against some of the computers, “number one being that you won’t leave here unless you do.”  
“Not much of an incentive,” Mark shook his head.  
“Okay,” the grin on his face already had Mark cautious, “our second option is I call a few of my friends…”  
He held up a cell phone for emphasis.  
“…And I’ll have them take your brother too.”  
“You won’t get my brother,” Mark’s eyes narrowed, “he’s not even here.”  
“Oh we know exactly where he is,” the man assured, “and it’s no skin off our back to interrupt his little love fest across the pond.”  
That made Mark pause.   
“Glad to have your attention. So tell me. Where are Jordan and Jesse?”  
Mark broke into a laugh and diverted his eyes.  
“Something funny?”  
“I don’t know where they are, and my brother doesn’t know where they are,” Mark looked up again, “that’s the whole point. They were meant to disappear.”  
“But you’ve been in contact with them.”  
“Not since they split,” Mark insisted, “no one’s heard from Jesse since he killed a bunch of your friends, and no one’s heard from Taylor in… I don’t know, half a year? We’re not exactly besties.”  
He watched as the man started going through the cell phone before suddenly frowning. Shifting his leg to make sure his pocket was empty, he realised it was actually his.  
“Still got their numbers in here,” he feigned interest.  
“Try them,” Mark shrugged, “I doubt they work.”  
The man locked eyes with him as he selected one and put the phone to his ear. Mark stared him down the entire time as he heard the voice come through saying the number had been disconnected.  
Mark automatically knew he’d tried Taylor’s first.  
“See? This is pointless,” he tried to point out, “we can’t help you.”  
He pulled out a different phone, speed dialled, and put that to his ear instead.  
“What are you doing?” Mark’s face fell.  
“Yeah we got him,” he was still staring him in the eye smugly, “go ahead and grab the other one. He’s not playing ball.”  
“What? Why?!” Mark’s brow furrowed as the call ended just as quick, “I just told you we _can’t_ help! What the fuck do you want us to do?!”  
“Right now I want you to stay down and shut up,” the man stood from where he was leaning and slowly approached him, “while we move on to the next one of you useless fuckers.”

“It’s a beautiful night,” Emma was looking out on the distant ocean from the balcony.  
“It certainly is.”  
She twisted to see Carey grinning down at her.  
“Not just because it’s the first night free of everybody,” she insisted, “but look at the stars. You don’t get to see that at home!”  
“I know,” Carey sighed, squeezing her a little tighter, “maybe… we could use the rest of the money to buy a holiday house somewhere where we can see them all the time. We could retire there.”  
“Not too far from the grandkids,” Emma mused.  
“Of course not.”  
Carey looked over his shoulder when they heard a knock at the door.   
“I thought you had the ‘do not disturb’ sign on?” Emma frowned.  
“I did,” Carey mirrored her look before looking back at her when they heard a call of ‘room service!’  
“I don’t remember ordering any,” he was now looking at her with suspicion.  
“Maybe it’s complimentary?” she suggested.  
“This close to midnight?”  
Another knock.  
“I’ll go see,” he rolled his eyes, leaving her on the balcony and making his way back into the room.  
He removed the latch over the door and went to pull it open just a few inches, suddenly sure they must have the wrong room, not expecting the person on the other side to suddenly throw their whole weight onto it. Carey went flying backwards with a yelp, looking up to see two men in dark clothing step into the room.  
“That’s him,” the first one gave his partner a nod, before they closed the door behind them.  
Carey’s eyes shot to the balcony where Emma had hidden herself behind the curtain. He could just barely see her shadow but he prayed it wasn’t noticeable.  
“Who are you?” he demanded, clenching a fist as his protective instincts went into overdrive.  
He recognised the tranquiliser gun the moment it was pulled from the second man’s jacket.  
“Oh come on!” he frowned, “I’m on my fucking honeymoon! What do you people want now?!”  
“Sit on the bed,” the gunman waved him toward it.  
Carey stole another glance at the window before making his way over.  
“Honeymoon, huh?” the first man mused before he even sat down, “where is she?”  
“She’s got nothing to do with this and I’m not bringing her into it,” Carey insisted, staring him down.  
“Check the bathroom,” the gunman suggested, the other heading for it right away.  
Carey took a deep breath, knowing she’d be found eventually. He didn’t know yet what kind of ramifications her pregnancy was going to have on his contract with the labs. He certainly hadn’t let them know because he didn’t want her to be the next lab rat.  
His mind raced for an answer as the man emerged empty handed before looking toward the balcony. When he headed for it Carey got back to his feet.  
“Stay down,” the gunman warned, making him pause.  
Emma locked eyes with him as she was pulled out from her hiding spot and brought back to the bed. The moment he could, Carey pulled her down into his arms.  
“Well what have we here?” came a smirk from above, “looks like someone’s been keeping secrets.”  
“It’s not mine,” Carey announced immediately.  
“Care…?”  
“I don’t know what they want yet,” he insisted, trying to cover, “but I’m sure they were about to tell us.”  
“Where’s your cell phone?” the gunman demanded.  
Carey looked toward the bedside table where it sat charging. The other man made for it, disconnecting the cord and starting to go through the call logs.  
“Are you going to tell me what this is about or…?”  
“When’s the last time you had any contact with C-1 or C-5?”  
Carey had to pause for a moment to work out who they were talking about.  
“At least six months,” he shook his head, “why?”  
“Because they’ve been missing for about that long, and we’re very interested in getting them back.”  
“Can’t help you there,” Carey shrugged, “they went off the grid, they made it so we couldn’t contact them anymore.”  
“Hm. Your brother said the same thing…”  
“My brother?” Carey frowned, “he just left this morning.”  
“And now he’s in a basement in Miami,” the ‘leader’ smirked, “getting the shit beaten out of him, if I’m correct.”  
“Miami?”  
“He said he was going back to Chicago,” Carey looked to Emma, “I don’t know why he’d be in Miami.”  
“We had your friend Number Four lure him there,” the gunman revealed, “and he won’t be leaving until we find these two that are missing.”

Alex avoided eye contact with Mark as he came down the stairs hours later. The man stood from the desk as he appeared.  
“What do you want me to do?” Alex asked in a soft voice.  
“I want you to connect one of these screens to this Skype address,” he was handed a cell phone, “they’ll be waiting for your call.”  
“Who is it?”  
“I’ll ask the questions,” he scoffed, standing back.  
Alex hesitated, but quickly copied the address down before handing the phone back. Mark watched on in silence. Alex sent the call through and it was answered nearly right away.  
He took a few steps back when he realised Morris was on screen.  
“Hello Alexander, hello Marcus,” he greeted them each with a nod, “very sorry we’ve had to resort to such measures but time is ticking away as they say…”  
“What do you want us to do?” Mark demanded, “we can’t help you. We’ve already told these people. We can’t work fucking magic!”  
“Well I know one of you has a few tricks up his sleeve. Alex,” Morris gave a pointed look, “I’m sure it wouldn’t be particularly hard for you to look up some phone records for us now, would it?”  
“I don’t… Their numbers aren’t active,” Alex looked like he was about to panic, “I tried to call Jesse _so_ many times and it never worked! It’s not disconnected but he hasn’t used it and I don’t think it’s been turned on since.”  
“Yes… we’re very interested in finding him again,” Morris looked to the side, “I take it you’ve done your own research on his background by now and worked out what we have about his past, and how he was not entirely honest in his initial interview.”  
“What’s he talking about?” Mark looked to Alex.  
“It’s a long story,” Alex shot him a glance.  
“Shorten it! What was he lying about?”  
“He didn’t lie, he just left a few things out,” Alex brushed off.  
“Important things, as it turns out,” Morris added, “he is certainly not someone who should be left to roam the streets unaccounted for. As such, if this venture is unsuccessful in finding him we will be forwarding our recovered security footage from our Nevada laboratory onto the authorities.”  
Mark frowned at that as Alex’s face paled further.  
“But that means…” he couldn’t finish the sentence.  
“It means they will most likely release an APB for Mr Jesse Musgrove,” Morris filled in the blanks.  
“You can’t do that,” Mark scorned, “they’ll be looking at all of us. It’ll ruin everything.”  
“Maybe,” Morris agreed, “but perhaps the public’s welfare is more important in this case.”  
“Since when?!” Mark demanded.  
“I can’t go to jail,” Alex was looking Mark in the eye for the first time, “I can’t. I won’t survive jail!”  
“Calm down,” Mark insisted, “you are not going to jail. None of us are. He’s just trying to scare you.”  
“If I were trying to scare you…” Morris considered, “I’d have warned you already that I’ve told these men keeping you company that I wouldn’t hold it against them personally if one of you had to be eliminated for an effective coercion.”  
Mark froze at that, before his eyes darted to Alex. Alex had taken longer to comprehend it but his eyes had gone to the gunman.  
“No,” barely made it out of his throat, “you can’t do this.”  
“Stay back,” the gunman warned, seeing how panicked he was getting.  
“You’re not gonna kill us,” Mark scorned, partly trying to keep Alex together, “you need us.”  
“Unfortunately we don’t, not really,” Morris corrected, “we need Taylor for further biological research and we need Jesse for reasons of justice, but the rest of you are… somewhat expendable. To be honest we were surprised so many of you survived to begin with.”  
“Carey,” Mark barely breathed.  
“Yes, even him,” Morris had heard, “now… I’m sure someone has an idea of just how to contact our missing comrades. So what exactly are you boys willing to give for your lives?”


	5. Part Five

“I don’t know, I don’t know what to do!” Alex was pacing, the gunman keeping a careful eye on him.  
“Fuck Taylor and fuck Jesse,” Mark insisted, “if you know something you need to spill it, _now_!”  
“I don’t know anything!” Alex insisted, “I’ve tried! I really have! I wanted to know where Jesse was because of what happened! _That’s not normal!_ I mean what if there’s something wrong with us? With all of us?! The only way to find out is for the labs to check Jesse over!”  
“What are you hiding?!” Mark looked incredulous, “who is he?!”  
“He was in the army,” Alex blurted, “he did at least two tours. He got a medical discharge because he got stabbed in a freakin’ bar fight after going off the rails somewhere in the Middle East.”  
“…What?”  
“I know, it sounds crazy!” Alex insisted, “but he’s killed a lot more than three people already.”  
Mark took a moment to process before shaking his head.  
“I mean it sounds like it could be PTSD but that changes nothing right now. Especially if we can’t find him. Was Taylor in contact with him?”  
“I don’t know, maybe?” Alex continued to pace, “but how am I supposed to contact him?! He changed his number and he left the country! He doesn’t use any of his credit cards! I can’t get in to passport control and the last plane ticket I had access to was a Tulsa to Dallas! He could be anywhere!”  
“Calm down,” Mark insisted, getting more and more annoyed at the ties on his wrists holding him down, “just calm down. We gotta think this through. There’s an answer somewhere.”  
“But I’ve tried everything!” Alex’s voice rose.  
“You haven’t tried everything,” Mark insisted, “just stop and think!”  
“Stop him pacing,” the gunman was also getting aggravated.  
“Untie me,” Mark scorned, “or deal with it yourself. Alex! Take a breath. Stop. Stop!”  
Alex was hyperventilating. He’d covered his nose and mouth and had backed himself into the corner.  
“ALEX!” Mark started to get worried.  
“You want me to deal with it?” the gunman pulled an actual Glock from his belt.  
“Whoa! Whoa! How about _you_ calm down!” Mark’s voice rose in kind.  
He was ignored as the gunman made his way over to the fretting Alex.  
“HEY!” Mark yelled after him, “you’re not going to kill the only one out of us that could ever possibly find them!”  
“No but I’ll shoot him in the fucking leg if I have to.”  
Mark clenched his fists and tried to break the ties for the hundredth time, but was distracted by a sudden thud. When he looked over to see Alex sprawled on the ground he panicked for a moment that he just hadn’t heard the shot before seeing the look of confusion on the gunman’s face.  
“Well that solves that problem,” he put the gun away.  
“He fainted,” Mark breathed a sigh of relief as the man leant down to turn him onto his back.  
“This is wasting time,” the man grumbled, pulling out his phone.  
He dialled and put it to his ear.  
“Yeah we’re having no luck with these two,” Mark frowned as he was ignored, “how are you going there?”

“Nothing. I don’t think he knows anything off the top of his head.”  
“How long are they going to be here?” Emma whispered to Carey.  
“Until they get what they want,” he replied, his temper reaching a high point.  
He untangled himself from her arms and stood from their spot on the bed. The man on the phone had his back to them and the other had taken up post beside the door. He was the first to see Carey’s movement and he immediately drew his tranquiliser gun.  
“Stay there!” he ordered, making Carey raise his hands in surrender.  
The other turned and backed off a little before pulling the phone from his ear.  
“Get back on the bed,” he ordered.  
“No,” Carey’s eyes met his.  
“Excuse me?”  
“I said no,” Carey insisted, “this has gone on long enough, we need to cut a deal.”  
The man paused before returning the phone to his ear.  
“I’ll call you back,” he said before hanging up.  
He gave his comrade a glance before putting it away.  
“What kind of deal?” he demanded.  
“I don’t know,” Carey shrugged, “but this needs to end. My wife is obviously distressed and if anything happens to this baby I swear to God-“  
“What?” the man in front of him taunted, stepping closer, “what will you do? Kill us like your little friend did?”  
“You’ve seen what my brother can do,” Carey held his gaze, “you haven’t seen what I can do.”  
“If you want a deal you need to bring something to the table,” the man at the door interrupted, “if you can’t find these two you’ve got nothing.”  
“Not true,” Carey’s eyes went to him instead, “you wouldn’t have come all this way if you didn’t need me. You don’t need her, so let her go.”  
“Our orders are to stay with the two of you until we’re told otherwise,” he shrugged, “no one’s going anywhere.”  
“Care sit down,” Emma softly tugged at his shirt.  
“I don’t see what the problem is,” Carey scowled, “she’s got nothing to do with this, so just let her go. Let her walk out. It’s no skin off your back.”  
“Care!” Emma’s voice rose as the man stepped closer, getting within Carey’s personal space.  
“Sit down before we put you down,” he warned in a low tone.  
“Carey please!”  
The worry in Emma’s voice snapping him back to reality, Carey finally put his hands down and once again took a seat. Emma’s arms were around him again before the man turned away.  
“We could be here forever at this rate,” Carey said pointedly, “we’ve all got a whole lot of nothin’.”  
“Yeah we’ll see about that.”  
Carey’s eyes followed him as he walked away, turning his head as Emma leant in.  
“Please don’t provoke them,” she whispered, “if they shoot you I’ll be left here alone.”  
“I’ve got an idea,” Carey whispered back cautiously, eyes darting around the room, “just be ready to run.”

It was a long time before Alex came to, and Mark was ignored until then. When Alex began to move the gunman simply readied his weapon and casually waited. Mark glared in his direction before focusing on Alex instead.  
“Alex?” he began warily, “you okay? Are you with us?”  
Alex pulled his glasses from his face and rubbed at his eyes. The frames had twisted somewhat in his fall but he was still able to wear them.   
“Alex?”  
“Yeah,” he groaned, rolling onto his side and pulling himself onto his knees.  
When he looked up to see the gunman watching him he froze.  
“Hey! Don’t look at him, look at me,” Mark insisted, pulling his eyes away, “we need to just stay calm, okay? We’re going to get through this. I’m sure it’s not long to go.”  
“By what reasoning?” Alex frowned, doing as suggested and trying to ignore that the gunman was even there.  
“Because I’ve got an idea,” Mark’s brow rose, “you said Taylor hasn’t used his credit cards, right?”  
“None that I could find,” Alex shrugged worriedly.  
“So how are they getting money? They have to be accessing it somehow.”  
Alex frowned at that, shifting so that he was sitting on his hip instead of his legs.  
“Before they left there was a large transfer sent out from his personal account,” he seemed to remember aloud, “but I couldn’t see where it went. I couldn’t get that far in.”  
“So where do you think it went?” Mark tried to coax, “if he needed access to it overseas?”  
“An off-shore account?” Alex shrugged.  
“Or something closer to home,” Mark suggested, “did you try looking at his wife’s accounts?”  
A light bulb seemed to go off as Alex stared at him, dumbfounded.  
“His wife?” he repeated aloud.  
“Don’t you think that’s something you should try?” Mark indicated the computers.  
Alex’s eyes darted before settling on the console. He pulled himself up to his knees and crawled over to it, adjusting his glasses before starting everything up again.  
The gunman sat quietly to the side, watching.  
Alex took some time to break through the security measures, but he treated it as though it was something he’d done a million times. Mark tried to follow at times but Alex moved too fast for him.  
After a quick internal debate on how to go about it, Alex checked for any accounts under Natalie’s name that had been registered to their home address. Coming up with a few he began hacking the bank sites individually to see if any of the accounts had been drawn on in the past six months. It was easier once he worked out which account Taylor’s money had gone into.  
“They’re in Mexico!” he suddenly announced, standing back and raising his hands, “holy crap they’re in Mexico.”  
“Where exactly?” the gunman demanded, bringing him back to reality.  
“Cancun,” Alex looked between he and Mark, “I don’t know where exactly in Cancun but if I work on it I might be able to isolate a cell signal.”  
“What are you waiting for?” the man shrugged, “do it.”  
“Well done Alex,” Mark was already breathing easier as Alex turned back to the console, “well done.”  
Alex wanted to thank him, but at the same time didn’t feel it was the right thing to do. The feeling of dread in his gut was only growing with the closer he was getting to finding Taylor. He told himself he didn’t have a choice – and he certainly didn’t see a way around it – but it still felt wrong.   
He knelt in front of the console again, knowing it was going to be harder without his chair. But it was a constant reminder of their situation and it only made him work faster.

Once Alex had a cell number to work with, he began to panic again when the calls weren’t answered. When he finally got hold of Taylor it felt as though the call lasted an eternity. The gunman had been breathing down his neck the entire time, and Alex was glad when he’d finally just taken over.  
When the call ended Alex stood aside awkwardly as the man considered his next move.  
“I need to call this in,” he insisted, “can you do the same thing for the other one?”  
“I can’t,” Alex shook his head, keeping his eyes down, “Jesse never transferred any money, he withdrew it all. It’s untraceable.”  
“And you don’t have his wife’s accounts?” Mark suggested.  
“I checked. They haven’t been touched,” Alex shrugged.  
“Why don’t you go and get us all something to eat,” the gunman suggested as he pulled out his phone before indicating Mark with it, “except for this one. By the time you get back I’ll give you an update on what’s going to happen.”  
Alex just nodded before slinking past and heading for the staircase. Mark watched as the man dialled and put the phone to his ear, checking that Alex was gone before speaking again.  
“Yeah, yeah we got one. He’s in Mexico but we’ve got him flying in to Dallas-Fort Worth tomorrow.”  
Mark’s eyes went to the computer screen which showed a map of where Alex had triangulated the cell phone signal.  
“He’ll be coming from Cancun, you’d better pick him up at the gate in case he does a runner.”  
He stepped across in front of Mark’s view, looking at the screens himself. Mark could hear a voice on the other end of the call but he couldn’t quite hear what they were saying.  
“Yeah it shouldn’t be too hard to track down,” he seemed to agree with them, “I can send you a picture of this map. You’ll find them within a day.”  
“Wait, find who?” Mark’s brow furrowed.  
He was ignored.  
“I don’t know what you want to do about this but he could get into their accounts, into surveillance and into cell signals… it might be too dangerous to leave this one loose.”  
“What are you doing?!” Mark’s voice rose, “that wasn’t part of the deal!”  
“No I don’t think we’ll have much luck with Five. Maybe once we get One into custody we’ll have better luck,” he’d turned back to Mark, pulling something from his jacket as he spoke.  
“We gave you Taylor,” Mark insisted, “you said you wouldn’t hurt us.”  
Listening to the person on the other end of the call, the gunman revealed some black tape. Mark leant back as he came for him, trying to duck his grip.  
“ALEX?!” his voice cracked as he desperately tried to warn him, “ALEX! ALEX GET OUT-!”  
Any more was muffled as the tape was wound tightly around his head.   
“Yeah I got it,” the gunman continued nonchalantly, “what about the one in Hawaii?”  
As he leant over Mark’s shoulder to rip the end of the tape, Mark’s ear was close enough to hear the response of ‘I’ll deal with it’.  
He breathed deeply through his nose as the gunman backed off.  
“Want us to stay here for now?” he returned to the screens with a smirk, “…sure. Talk soon.”  
He ended the call and took a quick photo of the screen with the phone camera. By the time he sent it off, they could hear Alex’s footsteps returning to the basement.


	6. Part Six

After checking in for his flight, Taylor found a quiet corner and pulled out his phone to call Natalie. He kept his cap low on his forehead and his head down in the hopes that no one would spot him in the meantime.  
“Hey where are you?” Natalie answered right away.  
“Near the gate,” Taylor kept his voice down, “how are the kids?”  
“They’re fine, they’re back on the beach. They’re probably not going to be fine when they find out you’re not coming back when you said you were.”  
“I’m sorry,” he winced, “I didn’t know what else to say.”  
“Just tell me now that you’re going to do everything in your power to come back,” Natalie insisted, “no matter what, if you have a chance you need to take it. _We need you. _”  
“I will, I swear,” he tried not to get emotional, “if I get any chance at all I swear I’ll take it.”  
He stopped to rub his eyes. He didn’t remember all that much from his time in the labs, but what he did he wished he could forget. He could still see the haze when he closed his eyes and he was terrified that it was exactly what he was going back to.  
“Have you heard from them again?”  
“No,” Taylor cleared his throat, “no, I don’t think I will until I get there.”  
“Call me when you land,” Natalie insisted.  
“I will. I’ll call the moment we hit the tarmac.”  
“Do you want to talk to the kids?”  
“I’d better not,” he admitted, looking up toward the gate, “I might screw up and say something.”  
“Okay.”  
They shared an awkward moment of silence where he was just glad to have her on the other end of the line. Natalie didn’t want to end the call either.  
The flight to Dallas was the longest he’d ever been on.__

__He looked over the van as he approached the house. It could come in handy later, he figured. He decided to leave it alone.  
He couldn’t see into the windows on approach to the house. The curtains were drawn and the sun was blaring off the front windows. So he made his way up to the front door and knocked.  
He waited. He could hear movement inside but no one came to the door.  
Sighing to himself he knocked again, wondering how to go about this. If no one was going to answer things could get very complicated very quickly.  
He’d hoped he’d made it obvious that he wasn’t going away anytime soon, but in the end he pulled a small tool kit from his back pocket and started tinkering with the door lock. Trying to be obvious so that he could draw more attention he was glad when he finally heard heavy footsteps heading his way.  
The door opened two inches and half a man’s face appeared.  
“Go away,” he demanded.  
“Can’t do that.”  
He didn’t see the shot coming. As soon as the man backed off he pushed the door open, checked over his shoulder to make sure no one had been watching, stepped inside and closed and locked it behind him. The man on the floor was groaning until he put another bullet into his head.  
After another sigh he blew on the silencer in an effort to cool it before sliding the gun back into his belt. He watched the body for a moment to make it sure it wouldn’t move again before stepping further into the house. The first room he came to was a living room, with a very frightened woman sitting on the sofa.  
“Oh, hey!” he put out a hand to pacify her when her reaction to a new face wasn’t great, “I am so sorry about the mess ma’am, I promise I’ll clean it up later. Mrs Bell, I presume?”  
The woman nodded and he stepped closer to offer his hand. Confused but obviously still upset, she shook it.  
“My name’s Jesse, I’m a friend of your son’s,” he offered a smile, “I’m with the local pest control, heard you were having a problem.”  
“They’re in the basement,” her voice shook, pointing in the general direction.  
Jesse looked over his shoulder.  
“Right. I’ll see about that,” he assured, making to leave the room.  
He stopped in the doorway.  
“Oh and uh… I noticed your outer phone line has been cut. I’ll try and fix that when I’m done,” he added, “just please stay here. I’ll be back soon.”  
Once he’d left the room he pulled his dark aviators from his eyes, hoping it had been enough to mask his face and that Alex’s mother hadn’t been upset because she’d recognised him.   
Guessing his way through the house he was quiet as he approached the basement door. It was open and he could hear voices – one of them belonging to Alex._ _

__“How much longer?” the gunman demanded.  
“His flight should have landed already,” Alex shrugged, “but I can check.”  
He stepped toward the console, jumping when the gunman made a noise in protest.  
“Don’t touch it,” he insisted, “enough games with the computer. We’ll wait for the call.”  
“And then?” Alex folded his arms as he retreated to the corner again.  
“Then I’ll let you know where we go from here.”  
Mark was staring him down, still unable to talk. He’d been trying to come up with a way to warn Alex all day but anything he’d thought of involved getting off the damn chair. Twice Alex had tried to convince the gunman to remove the tape but of course he’d declined. Now Mark was just tired.  
They all were._ _

__Jesse pulled the gun from his belt, debating whether to use Alex’s mother as a distraction. He quickly decided against it and started down the stairs himself, keeping the gun hidden behind his right hip.  
Silence greeted him, followed by the gunman fumbling for his tranquiliser gun.  
“Nope,” Jesse raised his own weapon, shooting the man in the shoulder.  
“OH MY GOD!” Alex exclaimed from the other side of the room, his hands going to his head.  
The gunman had yelled out too, now aiming for his Glock with his left hand. Jesse made it to the bottom of the stairs calmly and kicked the tranquiliser in Alex’s direction.  
“Really?” Jesse’s brow rose, aiming his gun for the other arm, “you really want to lose both?”  
He tilted his head.  
“Let’s be adults about this, shall we?”  
The gunman glared upward from where he’d fallen against the console, raising his left hand slightly.  
“Great choice. I’ll just be taking that…”  
He leant forward to remove the Glock, single-handedly emptying the cartridge before throwing it across the room.  
“Where’s Derek anyway? I would have thought he’d come along on this little adventure.”  
“He quit,” the man scowled.  
“Oh that’s a shame. I thought we had something,” Jesse was genuinely disappointed, “you guys okay back there?”  
“Oh my God,” Alex repeated, not having moved.  
Now that the assailant was unarmed, Jesse took a quick look around the room.   
“You might want to help Mark out,” he nodded in his direction.  
“Right. Okay,” Alex darted to his side.  
He began working to remove the tape first, trying to be careful but also trying to rush.   
“So… what’s actually going on here?” Jesse frowned, moving back to the staircase where he had a view of the whole room.  
“They want you, and Taylor,” Alex’s voice shook, “they’ve got Carey as well somewhere.”  
He jumped back as Mark let out a yell when the tape came free.  
“Fucking hell! Where the fuck did you come from?!” he frowned in Jesse’s direction.  
“I got Alex’s SOS,” he shrugged.  
“You sent an SOS?” Mark’s eyes went to Alex.  
“Yeah,” Alex shrugged, “but I didn’t think he’d get it! He’s never answered me before.”  
“How long have they been here?” Jesse frowned before focusing on the gunman, “what were your orders?”  
“Two days,” Mark replied for him as Alex tried to find something to cut the ties with, “they made Alex track Taylor down. He should be getting off a flight in Dallas and meeting the scientists any moment now.”  
“Knowingly?” Jesse’s frown deepened.  
“They threatened to kill us,” Mark shrugged, “Carey’s in fucking Hawaii and they have him too. I don’t know what to do.”  
“Do you know where he is?”  
“I know where he was staying, I don’t know if they’ve moved him.”  
“Have they moved him?” Jesse turned to the gunman.  
“I don’t know,” he shook his head with a glare.  
“Are you _sure_ you don’t know?”  
“We haven’t heard much, and he hasn’t heard much,” Mark assured, Alex returning to his side with a pair of scissors, “he probably doesn’t know.”  
He winced as Alex pulled on the ties, the cuts on his wrists bearing the brunt of it.  
“But last time he called them he said that Alex was too dangerous to leave here,” he revealed.  
“What?” Alex’s head snapped up.  
“What did you mean by that?” Jesse addressed his question to the gunman.  
“He said that if he could hack what he was hacking in order to find Taylor, it was too much of a risk that he might hack them,” Mark replied for him, “little do they know, I guess.”  
“So were you going to kill him or take him in?” Jesse asked.  
“Hurry up,” Mark hissed, bringing Alex back to reality and pressing him to finish cutting Mark free.  
“I’m not answering that,” the gunman insisted.  
“How was he communicating with them?” Jesse looked to Mark.  
“His phone, and through the computer somehow.”  
“Skype,” Alex offered, “with Morris.”  
“They’re going to know this has happened any minute now,” Jesse seemed to think out loud, “we need to clean this up quick.”  
“What’s your plan?” Mark’s brow rose as he held his wrists.  
“First we deal with this,” he lifted his gun and shot the gunman in the chest.  
“Oh my God,” Alex covered his eyes.  
“I promised his Mom I’d clean up the mess, so that’s what I’m going to do. But we need to get Alex out of here.”  
“What do you mean?” Alex’s eyes were wide.  
“He means you need to go off the grid,” Mark countered as Jesse went to check the gunman’s pockets, “you’re officially the second-last of us to be on the run. Congratulations.”  
“Mark, help me get these bodies out of the house,” Jesse had pocketed the man’s phone before moving around to lift him by the shoulders.  
“Right. Like people aren’t going to notice three Alexes carrying dead bodies around,” Mark finally stood from the chair and straightened his back, “we should wait for dark.”  
“I guess you’re right.”  
“Guys, what about Taylor?” Alex desperately wanted a change of subject.  
“Check his flight status,” Mark nodded to the screens.  
Jesse dropped the body again, realising he wasn’t going to get any help for a while. All eyes went to the console.  
“It landed twenty minutes ago,” Alex began to fret, “I have to call him.”  
“He’s got to taxi to the gate and get through customs, we should have some leeway,” Mark tried to reassure him.  
“And what if he’s already with Morris?” Jesse asked.  
Alex froze and quickly cancelled the call he’d been making.  
“We still have to try,” Mark frowned.  
“I can change this,” Alex insisted before bringing up a new screen and typing away, “bear with me.”_ _


	7. Part Seven

“Thanks,” Taylor gave the customs officer a smile before making his way through to security.  
He made it through with no troubles, not having any more than hand luggage with him. Not entirely sure where to go after he’d made it through he pulled out his cell phone and called Natalie again.  
“Where are you? Are they there?!” she fretted.  
“I don’t see them, but I don’t know who’s coming,” Taylor winced, “I’m not sure where to go. I think I’ll just head for the door.”  
“It’s a big airport, they didn’t give you somewhere to meet them?”  
“I thought Alex was going to call when I landed. I haven’t heard anything,” he shrugged, starting to walk.  
“I hope they’re okay.”  
“Me too,” he sighed, eyeing a nearby store and debating if he should buy himself a drink.  
He decided against it. His stomach was churning enough already.  
“You know this whole ‘sacrificing yourself for your family’ thing sounds all honorable and respectable in theory,” his brow furrowed, “but it’s actually terrifying in practise.”  
“I wish I could be there,” Natalie was sounding more and more upset.  
“I’m glad you’re not,” Taylor couldn’t help but chuckle.  
“Are you sure you don’t want me to call Ike or Zac or your Dad?”  
“Not yet,” Taylor insisted, pausing at a crossroads and trying to work out where to go, “give me at least a few days. Just tell Jesse what happened, he might have an idea.”  
“I will.”  
He froze on the spot and felt the breath leave his body. He could see Morris down the end of the corridor heading in his direction, flanked by two larger men. All three wore business suits. Knowing they hadn’t seen him yet he ducked backward into a small alcove.  
“He’s here,” he managed to get out.  
“Morris is there?”  
“Yeah,” he rubbed his face, “he hasn’t seen me yet.”  
“How long do you have?!”  
“Seconds,” he swallowed hard, “Nat… I love you.”  
“Fight them Taylor. Fight them as hard as you can!”  
“I will,” he felt himself shake.  
“I love you!”  
“I love you more,” he winced as he pulled the phone from his ear and ended the call.  
He had just enough time to wipe his eyes before looking up to see that he’d been spotted.  
He straightened his back against the wall and slid his phone into his back pocket as they approached, diverting his eyes when Morris looked into them.  
“Hello Taylor,” he greeted casually, “we’re so glad to see you here.”  
“I’m sure you are,” his voice croaked a little, still avoiding his gaze.  
One of the men with him reached for Taylor’s bag and he handed it over without a fuss.  
“Don’t be like that,” he could hear the smile in the doctor’s voice, “you were a very valuable acquisition for us, and we’ve been looking forward to making your company again for a very long time. You were a great help to us before and I’m sure you will be again.”  
“Well it’s not like I have a choice,” Taylor shrugged.  
“It’s still very much appreciated,” Morris assured before stepping aside, “follow me please.”  
Taylor watched him walk away, soon realising the other two men were waiting for him to move. As he began to follow Morris he felt his cell phone start to vibrate. Immediately worried that it was Natalie or one of the kids he forgot that he was going to try and hide it and quickly pulled it from his pocket. Seeing Natalie’s name on the caller ID he answered before anyone could warn him against it.  
“Nat? Are you okay?!” he asked, causing Morris to turn back.  
“Taylor it’s Alex! RUN!”

Taylor froze on the spot, knowing at least one of them had heard the shout. Knowing the doctor’s eyes were still on him, he looked to the right where he saw a sudden break in the crowd.  
“Don’t you even-“  
He was gone before he heard the rest. He slid the phone back into his pocket without disconnecting the call, concentrating on getting as far away from the trio as possible.  
Luckily, running through an airport wasn’t very conspicuous and no one really paid attention.  
He didn’t look back until he was two terminals over, and by then he had to stop to catch his breath. He couldn’t see them behind him but there were so many people in the area that he couldn’t be sure.  
Fishing for his phone again, he put it back to his ear when he realised it was still connected.  
“What the Hell is going on?!” he demanded.  
“Jesse’s here, we’re okay,” Alex’s voice came back.  
“And Carey?!”  
There was a pause on the line.  
“We don’t know,” it was a different voice, but Taylor wasn’t sure which, “but these guys are down for the count so we won’t get anything out of them.”  
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Taylor was looking in all directions now, “what if they hurt him because I ran?”  
“Don’t worry about that,” he recognised Jesse’s voice and realised the other must have been Mark, “just concentrate on getting away. Have you lost them yet?”  
“I’m not sure, I don’t know where to go,” Taylor’s brow furrowed.  
“Ditch your clothes.”  
“What?!” he scorned.  
“Ditch your clothes,” Jesse repeated calmly, “if they’re in a rush to find you, which I’m counting on, they’ll be looking for what you’re wearing.”  
“They took my bag,” Taylor looked around for an alternative, soon spotting a store selling Dallas Cowboys merchandise, “wait up. Stay on the line.”  
“We’re not going anywhere,” Jesse assured.  
Taylor put the phone back in his pocket before pulling off his red cap and his outer shirt. He ditched them both in nearby bin before heading across to the store.  
He hastily purchased both a blue cap and a bomber jacket and pulled them on before walking out and retrieving the phone.  
“Changed clothes,” he informed them, “now what?”  
“Head for an exit with a taxi rank and get the Hell out,” Jesse responded.  
“And go where?!” Taylor frowned as he merged with the crowd again.  
His mind raced for a moment before he suddenly remembered that he was in Texas.  
“Does anyone have Zac’s address?” he asked.  
“I do,” Mark replied, “but not with me. It’s in Chicago. Colin kept no digital records for a reason.”  
“Considering the week we’ve had, not a bad idea as it turns out,” Jesse considered.  
“How long will it take you to get back there?” Taylor asked, heading for the nearest exit.  
“Uh…”  
There was a pause.  
“Maybe two or three days?”  
“I can hole up in the city for a few days,” Taylor thought out loud, “then head to Zac’s once I have the address. I don’t like my chances of getting back on a flight to Cancun so soon.”  
“I wouldn’t either,” Mark agreed, “I’ll do what I can.”  
“Can I call this number back?”  
“I wouldn’t, I don’t think we’re staying,” Jesse warned, “wait until we call again if you want to ditch your phone.”  
“I gotta call Natalie first,” Taylor insisted, “but I’ll do it from the cab. I’ll let you know when I find a hotel.”  
“Don’t bother,” Jesse insisted, “it’s better that we don’t know.”  
“Right…” Taylor stepped outside and began looking for the taxi rank, “guess I’ll wait for your call then.”  
“Good luck Taylor!” Alex’s voice was slightly distant.  
“Thanks,” he hung up.

“So now what?” Alex looked between Mark and Jesse.  
“Now we clean up and get out of here,” Jesse insisted, going back to the nearby body.  
“While we do this, can you organise that flight for me?” Mark asked.  
“…Sure,” Alex nodded, glad to do anything but help them.  
“Thanks,” Mark gave him a pat on the shoulder before going to grab the guy’s legs.  
“Alexander?!”  
All three froze at the call that came from upstairs.  
“You might want to deal with that first,” Jesse suggested.  
Alex just nodded, before inching past them and rushing up the stairs.  
Jesse and Mark worked to get the body up there as well, setting it by the front door where the other one lay. They could hear Alex talking to his mother in the living room.  
“Not very dark yet,” Mark took a look through the curtained window.  
“We can wait,” Jesse flexed his wrists, “they’ll be focused on Taylor for a while.”  
“Yeah, and Carey,” Mark couldn’t hide his worry.  
“I think your brother’s on his own for this one, sorry,” Jesse’s brow furrowed.  
“It’s not hopeless,” Mark shrugged, “he’s got skills. It just sucks that Emma’s been dragged into it.”  
“Did they end up getting married?” Jesse asked.  
“Yeah. Honeymooning right now,” Mark nodded.  
“Uh… guys?”  
They looked up to see Alex in the doorway.  
“Can you come here a minute?”  
Mark and Jesse shared a glance before Jesse returned his aviators to his eyes. Mark followed Alex back into the room where they met his mother with her arms folded.  
“This is Mark,” Alex introduced, “he’s…”  
“A clone,” his mother finished, unsubtly looking Mark over.  
“Okay. Awkward,” Mark fidgeted a little.  
“Mark’s from LA,” Alex countered, “but he lives in Chicago now. When I met him he lived in LA.”  
“How long have you known about this?” his mother demanded.  
“A while, but not as long as it might seem,” Mark answered for him.  
“I was talking to my son.”  
Mark’s brow rose and he pointedly stepped back.  
“A year or two,” Alex admitted, “but I didn’t meet them until this year.”  
“How could you keep this from me?! Who are these people?! Why have I been a prisoner in my own home for the last two days?!”  
“Excuse me ma’am.”  
All eyes went to Jesse as he approached her from Mark’s side.  
“I’m sorry you’ve had to go through such an experience, I truly am, but talking down to your son is possibly not the best way to go about this.”  
Her eyes narrowed but she said nothing. She was visibly on edge but didn’t seem to want to argue with him.  
“This was a big surprise for all of us, and we are still coming to terms with the whole situation ourselves. In the meantime we’ve had to deal with these people who are after us for no reason other than our biology, because they only found out about the same time that we did that we had survived the initial experiment timeframe.”  
“What do you mean?” she demanded.  
“I mean that they wanted us dead. They wanted your son dead,” Jesse insisted, “the only reason he’s alive today is because someone helped his birth mother escape the project. Now, we don’t know much more than that but we are slowly putting the pieces together and if you’ll let us – we will certainly keep you updated with anything we find out from here on in.”  
Alex took a deep breath.  
“Take off your glasses,” she looked Jesse up and down, her eyes not having left him.  
“Are you sure you want me to do that?” he was sincere.  
She nodded. He paused in case she’d change her mind, but slowly pulled his sunglasses from his face and slid them into his shirt.  
Looking into his eyes seemed to take her breath away and she finally diverted her own.  
“Like I said, I promise I will clean up this mess before I go,” he insisted, “but the two of you will need to consider alternative accommodation as of tonight.”  
“What do you mean?” Alex’s brow furrowed.  
“He means once they realise what’s happened they’ll be sending reinforcements,” Mark elaborated, “like I said, you’re on the run now. Gotta start acting like it.”  
“I can’t live on the run,” Alex shook his head, starting to fret again, “I’m not like you guys. I’ve been in this house my whole life!”  
“It’s not like you have a choice,” Mark frowned.  
“And what about my equipment?! I can’t move that!”  
“You move or you die,” Mark stared him down, “what would you prefer?”  
“You will have help,” Jesse insisted, “you won’t be alone in this. We can help you.”  
“Help,” Alex scoffed, starting to bite his nails.  
“Yes, help,” Jesse assured, “but we won’t rush into anything. For tonight we’ll put you up in a hotel somewhere, Mark and I will sort this place out, and we’ll figure things out properly in the morning.”  
“How are we sorting this out anyway?” Mark asked him.  
“Well they did conveniently leave us a van,” Jesse pulled the keys from his front pocket, “so at least I don’t have to dirty my truck in the process. Oh speaking of which…”  
He looked to Alex’s mother.  
“Do you have any bicarb soda?”


	8. Part Eight

Carey felt his heart rate spiking as the man paced in front of him. Suddenly none of his phone calls were being answered.  
“Care whatever you’re going to do,” Emma kept her voice down, “now might be the time.”  
“You trust me, right?” he looked her in the eye.  
“The fact that you have to ask me that makes me wary of saying yes,” her eyes narrowed.  
He took hold of her hand and focused on the man on the phone again. When he finally managed to get through to someone, Carey used the distraction to lean in and pretend to kiss her neck.  
“Head for the balcony and I’ll meet you there,” he whispered, “I’ll tell you when.”  
Emma frowned at that wondering if he just wanted her out of the room, but the end of the phone conversation caught their attention before she could respond.   
“He did a runner,” he told his accomplice, “he ditched them at the airport.”  
“One’s gone?” the gunman frowned.  
“They think he’s still in the area but they haven’t found him yet.”  
“Go now,” Carey whispered, “I’ll tell them you’re feeling sick.”  
Emma nodded before inching herself off the bed. It took a moment for the gunman to spot her.  
“Hey! Get back on the bed!” he ordered, making her freeze.  
“She just needs some air,” Carey raised his hands in surrender, “just because she hasn’t slept doesn’t mean she won’t get morning sickness.”  
Emma looked over her shoulder, seeing the gunman wave her on. With a sigh of relief she headed for the balcony.  
“What do they want us to do?” he looked to the man on the phone instead as Carey watched her go.  
“Stand by,” he shrugged, “if they don’t find him we might have to step up here.”  
“What happened?” Carey asked, working to distract them further.  
“Your friend Jordan made a run for it,” the man with the phone turned to face him, “which means he might have just signed your death warrant. Right now I’d be thinking long and hard about whether you can find the other one for us or not.”  
“I already told you no one knows where Jesse is,” Carey scowled at the threat, “what do you want us to do, pull him out of thin air?!”  
“That little prick killed my cousin,” the man stared him dead in the eye, “don’t think for a second that I will hesitate in doing the same to you.”  
“Hey!” the man at the door readied his gun just in case.  
“If what you came all this way for is revenge despite my having nothing to do with it,” Carey said between his teeth, “then what are you waiting for?”  
The man struck out, hitting Carey across the jaw. Carey took the hit before feeling himself being pulled up by the shirt.  
“Hey! Let him go!” the gunman scorned.  
“That won’t be a problem,” Carey muttered under his breath, ducking the second punch.  
He feigned falling to his knee before tackling the man at his. The phone flew across the room as they both hit the floor.  
Knowing what was coming Carey quickly grabbed the man’s pants and pulled them forward as if to pull them off. The man’s reaction was to sit up, which created a momentary cover for Carey when the gunman pulled the trigger. The dart went into the man’s back and he couldn’t reach to pull it out.  
As the other – smaller – man struggled to reload the dart gun, Carey sprang to his feet and darted for him. He went for the gun first using the momentum to push the man back into the door. He wouldn’t relinquish his grip as much as Carey wrestled him, and twice he tried slamming his elbows back into the door in an effort to get him to drop it.   
“NO!” he eventually yelled, trying to kick at Carey’s legs.  
“Give me a ten second head start and I won’t hurt you,” Carey’s voice was low.  
“What?” his brow furrowed.  
“Ten seconds, and I’ll let you go,” Carey insisted, “count them out.”  
The man looked confused, but at the same time knew he was losing the wrestling match.  
“One… two…” he began with a shake of his head.  
Carey turned and sprinted for the balcony. He met Emma hiding behind the curtain.  
“Jump,” he took her shoulder.  
“What?!” her eyes widened.  
“Trust me!” Carey’s adrenaline was high, “just hold her, and jump. We’ll all be fine!”  
Emma looked over the balcony, a hand already on her baby bump.  
“Care…”  
He’d already moved a chair over for her to stand on.  
“Hold her, and land on your back. I’ll be right behind you,” he insisted, throwing a glance over his shoulder to check they weren’t being followed.  
Emma climbed onto the chair, looking down into the pool. She wanted to protest but she knew the trouble they were in.  
“GO!” Carey shouted, giving her shoulder a gentle push.   
Emma held her breath and jumped. The moment she was gone, Carey climbed onto the railing and followed.  
They both hit the water within a second of each other and as soon as they surfaced Carey swam to her side.  
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed, ecstatic that she’d made it.  
When she saw Carey beside her she grabbed him and kissed him. He let her for a moment but soon pushed her back.  
“We gotta go!” he insisted, pulling her toward the side of the pool.  
Workers from the hotel had already come running to the commotion and Carey could already hear the start of a lecture about being in the pool after hours. He made sure Emma was out of the water and steady on her feet before facing the loudest protester.  
“Room 304!” he insisted, “there’s two men in our room with guns! They’ve been there all night. Please help us!”  
There was a pause, before two of them decided to call for security. Knowing he didn’t have to do anything else but answer some questions Carey turned back to Emma and pulled her aside to check her over properly.  
“Are you definitely okay?” his adrenaline was still pumping but slowly being replaced with worry.  
His hands had gone straight to her bump.  
“We’re fine,” Emma insisted, a beaming smile on her face.  
It didn’t take long for Carey to notice.  
“What is it?” he asked, ignoring the hotel worker behind him who was trying to get his attention.  
“You said ‘her’,” Emma mused, “you think we’re having a girl.”  
Carey paused at that as Emma bit her lip.  
“I did?” he raised a brow.  
She nodded.  
“I don’t remember saying it,” he admitted.  
“But you did, and I think we’re having a girl too.”  
Carey grabbed her and kissed her again. This time when he let go he did start to answer the hotel worker’s questions.  
Security managed to apprehend the lone gunman, and the police were called to deal with both he and the one that was unconscious. The couple were offered a change of room for the night which they gladly took, despite plans to leave first thing in the morning anyway.

“Hello?!”  
“Hey!” Taylor’s eyes flashed as he watched the passing traffic, “I’m okay, I’m leaving the airport.”  
“Taylor what happened?! You said you saw Morris!”  
“I did,” he scratched at his nose, “I saw him and he caught up with me, and then Alex called and told me they were safe and to run. So I ran.”  
“Where are you? Where are you going?”  
“I’m just leaving the airport now and heading into the city,” he turned to look out the back window, “I don’t want to take my chances with the airport but I know Zac’s in Texas somewhere so Mark’s going to send me the address when he gets back to Chicago.”  
“So you’re going to stay with Zac?”  
“That’s the plan. For now anyway,” he shrugged, “what about you guys?”  
“We did as you said and moved a couple of hotels down the road,” Natalie confirmed for him, “the kids like it better here at least. But I don’t know that I like the idea of staying in Cancun if you’re staying in Texas.”  
“I know what you mean,” Taylor winced, “just… let me find him, I’ll let him know what’s going on, and we’ll see about getting you guys up here again. I know there’s other safe houses so we might be able to use one of those.”  
“How long?”  
“Mark said a couple of days to get back to Chicago. I’m hoping he’ll contact me right away. I’ll be staying in the city until then. I only have my wallet and my phone on me and I know the phone’s dying. They took my bag.”  
“Why would they take your bag?”  
“Probably figured I wouldn’t need it where I was going,” Taylor shrugged, “it only had clothes in it. Have you spoken to Jesse?”  
“I tried calling him after you hung up but I didn’t get an answer.”  
“He’s probably busy. He was with Alex and Mark.”  
“That was fast.”  
“Yeah… I’m guessing we’ll get the full story later.”  
He paused as he heard her talking to somebody in the background. He was breathing a lot easier now that the panic had gone from her voice. Now he just hoped the kids wouldn’t be too much for her in the meantime.  
“I need to go and finish checking in,” she came back, “but call me when you get to wherever you’re going.”  
“I’ll let you know as soon as I know,” he promised.  
“Stay safe.”  
“You too.”  
He ended the call and took a deep breath. That was one less thing to worry about.  
He quickly checked how much battery he had left before finding Zac in his phonebook and dialling his number.  
“Tay?” he sounded surprised when he answered.  
“Hey, ah… surprise! I’m coming to visit.”  
“…Excuse me?”  
“You’re still in Texas, right?”  
“Yeah we haven’t left.”  
“I’m in Dallas,” Taylor revealed, “long story but I need a place to hole up for a while. I’m getting Mark to send me the address and I’ll be there in a couple of days.”  
“You know I could just give you the address right now,” Zac sounded confused.  
“You could but you probably shouldn’t,” Taylor pointed out, “we have to be paranoid about this, remember? I’ll call you when I know though.”  
“Fine. Who knows about this?”  
“Just you, Nat and… Jesse, Alex, Mark so far. I’ll tell you everything when I get there.”


	9. Part Nine

“For fuck’s sake,” Mark scowled at his phone as he hung up again.  
“Still no answer?” Alex’s voice made him look up.  
“No,” he couldn’t hide his worry.  
“What are you doing?” Jesse appeared from the side of the van.  
“He’s trying to call Carey,” Alex answered for him.  
“They might not have let him have his phone,” Jesse shrugged, “give it time. Al – have you got everything you wanted to take in the truck?”  
“Almost,” he nodded, “just some things of Mom’s to go.”  
“How much is your hacking ability going to be hampered without the console?” Jesse asked.  
“I don’t know yet,” he shrugged, “if I’m working laptop-only… I could probably still get into places like the DMV or the labs but probably not the FBI or anything major. Plus I’d need good internet.”  
Mark rolled his eyes as yet another call went unanswered.  
“Can you call the hotel itself?” Alex suggested as Jesse locked up the back of the van.  
“I’d have to look the number up but I might do that,” Mark agreed, “it’s stupid, I’m not even that worried about Care. I’m worried about Emma.”  
“Carey’s fiancée?” Alex confirmed.  
“Wife, actually,” Mark corrected, “she’s pregnant and I just don’t want anything to happen to the baby is all.”  
“Pregnant?” Jesse turned suddenly, “Carey’s wife’s pregnant?”  
“Yeah,” Mark looked up, taken aback by the look on his face.  
“Did she cheat on him?” Jesse asked straight out.  
“She would never,” Mark frowned, “why the fuck would you suggest that?”  
Jesse pulled the keys from the door, looking like he didn’t want to respond. But as he made to walk past them to get in the driver’s seat Mark grabbed his arm. Tightly.  
“Why would you say that?” he demanded, his voice low.  
“Let go of me,” Jesse said between his teeth.  
“I’ll let go when you give me a straight answer for once,” Mark countered.  
Alex took a step back.  
“We’re not supposed to,” Jesse’s eyes went to the road.  
“Not supposed to what?” Mark demanded.  
Jesse took a deep breath as if trying to keep calm.  
“We’re not supposed to reproduce,” he came out with, “none of us. That’s why I can’t have kids, that’s why Colin couldn’t have kids… that’s why they’re so fucking determined to get Tay back. They want to know why he’s an exception to the rule.”  
Mark let go of Jesse’s arm but he didn’t move away.  
“We’re sterile?” his brow furrowed.  
“Supposed to be,” Jesse shrugged, “but if Carey’s having a kid then I guess we’re just the lucky ones.”  
He looked between both Mark and Alex before finally getting in the van. Without looking back he started it and pulled out of the driveway.  
Mark’s eyes went to Alex.  
“You haven’t ever…?”  
“No,” Alex shook his head.  
Mark nodded, not surprised in the slightest.  
“You?” Alex folded his arms awkwardly.  
“Oh yeah, a lot,” Mark assured, “but no kids. Ever.”  
“It must have been something Taylor told him when he broke him out,” Alex watched after the van as it disappeared around the corner.  
“Yeah…” Mark scratched at his head, “and I’m suddenly interested in what else everyone is keeping secret. Are you ready?”  
“I’ll grab the last few boxes and fetch Mom,” Alex nodded, backing onto the path and returning to the house.  
Mark watched him go before heading over to Jesse’s truck to back it into the driveway and make it easier.

Jesse pulled the van into the empty car lot and shut the engine off. He sat with his head against the steering wheel for a minute or two just taking deep breaths. When he looked up again he could see in the mirror that his eyes were red, and quickly rubbed them before pulling out his cell phone. He selected the number and put the phone to his ear hoping that it wasn’t a bad time to call. The sun had almost set.  
“Jess?”  
“Chelsea,” he was relieved to hear her voice.  
“Where are you, are you okay?!”  
“I’m fine,” he assured, “I just wanted to hear your voice.”  
“When are you coming back?”  
“Soon,” he promised, “Al’s message was legit, he got himself in a bit of trouble. I’m just going to help him get settled and I’ll be back in two days max.”  
“Okay. Call me tomorrow.”  
“Are you okay?” he asked.  
“I’m fine. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Love you.”  
“Love you too.”  
He ended the call and leant over the steering wheel again for another couple of minutes before finally getting out of the van. From the passenger side he retrieved a gas can which he quickly used to spread gasoline throughout the van, making sure to liberally cover the bodies in the back. Job done he turned his cap so the brim was covering his face, lit a match, and threw it in.  
He closed the back door before walking away.

“Oh thank God, where the fuck are you?!” Mark demanded.  
“We’re still at the hotel,” Carey replied, “thirty calls, seriously?!”  
“I didn’t know what was going on! They told us they were gonna kill us!” Mark scorned, his eyes on Alex and his mother as they transferred their belongings from the truck into the motel room, “how was I supposed to know you were even alive?!”  
“We’re fine,” Carey insisted, “all of us. We got out and they got pulled by security.”  
“Security?” Mark frowned.  
“Yeah they got handed over to the cops. We should be okay for long enough to switch hotels and maybe get back to the mainland.”  
“You sure that’s a good idea? Maybe being so far away is a good thing right now.”  
“Emma wants to go home, and I don’t blame her. We just need to be careful about it.”  
“What about the tracer in your arm?”  
There was a pause on the line followed by a sigh.  
“I’m taking it out tonight,” he admitted, “when we get back to LA we’ll move again. Hopefully they won’t follow.”  
“You know they’re going to be after you the second that thing goes dark,” Mark’s brow rose.  
“Yeah I know. But I don’t know what else to do right now. Emma needs to be the priority.”  
Mark bit his lip, watching as the Bells made another trip back and forth.  
“What is it?” Carey asked after his pause, making Mark roll his eyes.  
This wasn’t something he wanted to tell his brother over the phone. It wasn’t something he wanted to tell him at all, if he were being honest with himself.  
“Mark?”  
“Nothing. There’s just a lot going on right now,” he tried to cover as he looked back over his shoulder and onto the road, “I overheard one of the bad guys say that Alex was too dangerous to leave at home so we’ve moved he and his Mom out to a motel far away from there. They’re not taking it so well but we kinda had to.”  
“Go easy on him, we know he’s kind of a recluse,” Carey pointed out.  
“I know, and I am,” Mark assured, “his Mom is another thing though. I’m surprised she isn’t beating me and Jesse with a cane yet just because we look like Al.”  
“Did she know?”  
“Not before today. Or yesterday,” Mark frowned, “whenever the fuck I got here. She wasn’t happy.”  
“Just make sure she isn’t about to go running off telling the world about the Great Clone Conspiracy,” Carey warned.  
“I think we got that covered with the whole ‘these people want you dead’ angle,” Mark assured.  
“For their sake I hope you’re right.”  
Mark paused again, watching the shadows moving in the windows. He really didn’t want to leave them alone out here but he knew he wouldn’t have a choice.  
“Did they find out that Emma was pregnant?” he asked warily.  
“They know,” Carey insisted, “I mean I don’t know if Morris knows, but the guys that had us certainly know now.”  
“You didn’t hear them tell him over the phone?”  
“It wasn’t mentioned in any call I overheard,” Carey thought back, “it didn’t seem to come up. They were just supposed to watch us. We were like hostages.”  
“Yeah I know the feeling,” Mark assured, seeing Alex coming to his door and quickly winding the window down for him.  
“We’re done,” Alex informed him, “is that Carey?”  
“Yeah it is. Why don’t you go see if your Mom’s hungry yet and we’ll go get some food. It might be a while before Jesse shows up again.”  
Alex nodded and went back to the room.  
“Where are you guys?” Carey asked.  
“Out of the city, that’s all I know,” Mark shrugged, “some motel off the interstate. Jesse’s supposed to meet us here when he’s done doing what he’s doing.”  
“And… what’s he doing?”  
“Do me a favor and don’t ask. I’m heading back to Chicago tomorrow night.”  
“Why Chicago?”  
“Retrieval mission. Need to find the address of the safe house Zac is at and send it to Taylor so he can meet him there.”  
“How many of those houses did you find?” Carey was suddenly interested.  
“Three definite and another possible, why?”  
“We might need one for a while. I’ll get back to you when we figure out what we’re doing about LA.”  
“By the time you do that I should have all the paperwork together,” Mark nodded to himself, “want me to call you from Chicago?”  
“Sure.”  
Mark watched as Alex left the motel room, closing the door behind him and making his way to the truck alone.  
“And I guess we’re going for food. Talk later Care.”  
“Thanks Mark.”  
Mark pulled a face at that, knowing it hadn’t exactly been good news. He threw the phone aside and started the truck up.  
“Did you tell him?” Alex asked as he got in.  
“No,” Mark replied, “But I will, at the right time. What does your Mom want?”  
“Whatever we’re having,” Alex shrugged.  
Mark groaned, having been hoping for some direction.  
“Guess we’ll see what’s around then,” he muttered, backing out of the parking spot.

“We aren’t eating out tonight, right?” Emma thought to check before getting in the shower.  
“As long as I can order steak, we don’t have to,” Carey looked up from the desk.  
“Why don’t you just ask for the knife?”  
“After what happened last night?” Carey gave her a condescending look, “they’re already watching us closer than usual. I promise to try and keep it away from you.”  
Emma pulled a face and closed the bathroom door. Moments later he was in there anyway asking her what she wanted to order.  
It was a while after she emerged that it arrived, but before Carey touched the food he took the steak knife into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him so that Emma wouldn’t have to see what he was doing and leant over the vanity to use the light.  
He knew the chip had moved since it had been inserted and he didn’t want to accidentally hit a vein. He tested the skin with his pointer finger in order to find it, managing to push it up a little so it appeared as though it were just under the surface. He managed to sit the blade so that it sat just under the edge, took a deep breath, and cut into himself as fast as he could.  
He managed to get the chip on the end of the blade and flick it out within seconds.  
He dropped the knife into the sink and covered the wound with his right hand, taking a moment to process the pain. When he thought he had it under control his eyes went back to the sink where the chip sat stuck against a spot of blood.  
He reached over for it, picking it up to study it. It looked like a tiny motherboard slightly wider than a grain of rice. His mind ticking over, he left the bathroom and headed for where his phone sat on the bedside table.  
“What’s wrong?” Emma immediately thought the worst, that he’d done more damage than he could handle.  
“What? Nothing,” she’d caught him off guard.  
He dialled Alex’s number and pulled the phone to his ear. The number coming up as disconnected, he cursed and dialled for Mark instead.  
“You again?” Mark smirked as he answered.  
“Put Alex on,” Carey insisted.  
“…Okay.”  
He heard the phone being handed over.  
“Carey?” Alex sounded wary.  
“These chips in our arms,” Carey was looking back toward the bathroom, “what kind of condition do they have to be in for you to be able to do anything with them?”


	10. Part Ten

As Taylor tried to settle in to his hotel room with room service and a television marathon, Alex set up what parts of his console he’d managed to bring with him to the motel. His wrist was still hurting from where Mark had cut out the chip so he was doing most of the work one-handed. He managed to get into local surveillance and began to keep an eye out for any familiar vehicles. Likewise, in the areas around both the Miami and Dallas airports. He knew they might try and bail Mark up somewhere on his way back to Chicago.  
As far as he could tell the coast was clear, but he remained vigilant as long as he stayed awake. In the meantime he’d upped his medication intake in order to try and stay calm. Jesse and Mark’s immediate plans for him hadn’t been entirely concrete and he’d already panicked multiple times about his immediate future. The plan for now was to stay at the motel for at least three days before moving on, and just to keep in contact with Jesse. Alex was already paranoid they’d been followed or that his mother might be approached if she left even to get food and he therefore focused most of his energy on trying to get back into the database at the labs to see if he could find any information on their current ground work. Unfortunately he soon realised a lot of the Nevada lab information hadn’t been updated in a long time – they’d moved most of their operations to Dallas already. 

Jesse had driven Mark to the airport, and once he’d dropped him off began the trek back to Louisiana. Having left early in the morning he was easily back at the safe house before midnight. He managed not to wake his wife as he slipped into bed beside her and took a moment just to savor her presence.

Mark was apprehensive as he made his way through the airport. The back of his neck felt like it was on fire and he was sure everyone that looked in his direction could see the chip protruding from the skin. Knowing very well that he was the only one left with a tracer he couldn’t help but feel like there was a giant target on his back.  
Yet he got through the airport with no trouble and managed to board his flight to Chicago without incident.   
When he landed he texted Carey to check in before heading to where his new 2015 Camero convertible had been held in the airport’s short-term garage. Knowing the way off by heart now he easily drove back to the apartment. He left the car in the residents’ garage and collected his bag from the back before heading inside.  
As usual, Ronaldo was there to greet him.  
“Mr Reis,” he nodded, “you’re late.”  
“Yeah something came up,” Mark frowned as he pulled the key card from his wallet, “had to make an unexpected trip down south before I could come back.”  
“The family okay?”  
“Yeah,” he mused, “they are now.”  
“How was the wedding?” Ronaldo asked as Mark pressed the button for the elevator.  
“Great. Nice,” he nodded, “intimate. Just how they wanted it.”  
“I wish I could go to Hawaii one day,” Ronaldo mused, “take the family, make a big holiday.”  
“Someday you might,” Mark tried to reassure, “there’s no sense in dismissing it yet. You got a few years left in you.”  
“It’s a nice dream, but I know it’s a dream,” Ronaldo sighed, “there’s no possible way I could afford such a thing.”  
Mark took a look around the lobby, taking in the expensive furnishings and attention to detail. He didn’t want to ask him how much he was paid for being the doorman but he was soon distracted by the elevator arriving. He stepped aside as the occupants walked out.  
“I’m just saying, keep the dream alive,” he insisted, “you never know where life is going to take you. One day you could be in the slums of outer LA…”  
He stepped into the elevator and slid the key card in.  
“…Next thing you know you’re in a high rise in Chicago.”  
“You’re from LA?” Ronaldo raised a brow.  
“Born and bred,” Mark gave him a wink as the doors closed, “have a good night Ron.”  
“You too Mr Reis.”  
Mark sighed as the elevator began to move, pulling out his cell phone again to double check that he still had the number Alex had given him. The sooner he managed to get Taylor sorted the sooner he could focus on finding somewhere better for Alex and his mother to stay. The sooner he got Alex settled somewhere the sooner he could sleep easier knowing he was watching.   
He’d already contemplated employing some personal security for the apartment while on the plane. He figured he’d talk to Ronaldo about it when he wasn’t so pressed for time.   
“God, when did I become everyone’s bitch?” he asked himself aloud, watching the numbers rise.  
The elevator opened and he stepped to the side where he dropped his keys, wallet and card into a bowl and set his bag down. The moment he stopped to return his phone to his pocket, he froze.  
He turned to look over his shoulder. Nothing seemed out of place.  
Waiting for a few seconds to see if he could hear anything, he reached down to the top drawer of the desk and quietly slid it open. When he saw that his gun was missing he cursed inside his head and closed it again.  
The hairs on the back of his neck well and truly standing on end now, he looked for something else to arm himself with. Having not even been able to take his pocketknife with him on the planes he’d left everything behind in the apartment. Unfortunately, everything was in the bedroom on the other side of the floor.  
His next thought was the kitchen and he cautiously headed there first. If they were here to take him in again, they weren’t taking him without a Hell of a fight. But it worried him that he couldn’t tell where they were. Were they even still here…?  
On his way to the kitchen he froze when he noticed a light in the distance. The opposite living room light was on – the only one aside from the entryway. Knowing he’d be seen through a walkway if he actually went to the kitchen, he grabbed a nearby glass ornament instead and backtracked.  
He couldn’t see anyone as he made his way through the dining area, coming toward the first living area. As he got closer to the light however he could see a man’s legs. He was sitting on the main sofa that Mark had pegged as Colin’s favorite.   
Not seeing a face but guessing who it could be from experience, he paused to center himself. They knew he was here and he knew there was no way out. So he stepped out into the light.  
When he saw who was actually sitting there, his eyes widened.  
“Oh _shit_!” he turned to sprint back for the door.  
He made it as far as the other side of the dining area when two large, dark shapes stepped out to stop him. His escape route had been completely cut off. Unable to even see their faces in the dark he couldn’t fight them off as one took hold of the shoulder of the arm that held the ornament and the other grabbed him by the hair.  
“ _Shit, shit, shit, _” he hissed between his teeth, trying to wrestle away from them.  
He was dragged back into the light of the living room before the ornament was pointedly pried from his grip.  
“Mr Reis… you missed our meeting,” the heavy Italian accent only sounded disappointed, “and as a result, my boy Tony is now in jail. I don’t like it when my boys find themselves in jail.”  
Mark grimaced as his hair was pulled tighter, forcing his head back. He used his free arm to put his hand up in a gesture to wait.  
“This is going to sound like a terrible cliché,” he was taking deep breaths, “but I swear I am not who you think I am.”__

__“Thanks,” Taylor gave the man a smile as his room service was dropped off.  
He was making the most of the situation and ordering food he wouldn’t normally on tour. The only other thing he had to occupy his time in the room was the television, and he could already feel himself getting a little stir crazy.   
He just really wished Natalie were there.  
He took his time eating while watching a random documentary. He’d promised Natalie he wouldn’t call again before a certain time, and before room service had gotten there he’d basically been watching the clock. He hadn’t heard from Mark yet despite knowing he should have been back in Chicago by now. He hoped he’d get a call before the night was through so that he could organise to get to Zac’s in the morning, but maybe Mark had other plans. Maybe he wouldn’t hear from him until morning either.  
He looked at the clock again as he was finishing up wondering if he should call Isaac again first. He had a vague idea of what time zone he was in now and winced as he realised it would have been early morning. That plan was out.  
With a sigh he set the tray aside and took hold of his phone again. Trying to be slow about it, he looked up Natalie’s number and finally dialled.  
He couldn’t remember his estrangement from her on tour ever sending him this crazy, but perhaps it was just because he had nothing else to focus on.  
It rang longer than usual and he hoped he wasn’t catching her in the middle of trying to organise dinner. He didn’t want to add to the chaos.  
“Taylor?” she finally answered and he breathed a sigh of relief.  
“Hey, sorry. I know it’s early but…”  
He frowned when he realised her voice had cracked.  
“Are you okay?”  
His heart started to race as she paused before answering. He was already thinking the worst. One of the kids was hurt. Something had happened at home. _She_ was hurt.  
“Nat?”  
“Taylor they’re here.”  
His blood ran cold. He quickly reached over to turn the television off.  
“Who?” he demanded, keeping his voice steady.  
“I don’t know exactly,” her voice broke again, “but they said they were with some research lab in the US and that they had the right to take them.”  
Taylor stopped breathing. His worst thoughts hadn’t compared to what he was now facing.  
“What happened?” was all he got out, feeling a lump forming in his throat.  
“They took Penny and Ezra. I couldn’t stop them. They said they’re taking them back to the States and that they’d contact us.”  
Taylor dropped the phone. He felt himself start to hyperventilate. He covered his face with hands and after taking a deep breath, he screamed._ _


End file.
